Institutions related to Chopin

The Freiburger Barockorchester (FBO) looks back on an unprecedented history of success. From its student beginnings in 1987 within a few years an internationally sought-after orchestra emerged becoming a regular guest in the most important concert halls and opera houses. The FBO’s very special sound on period instruments is frequently praised, also its virtuoso ensemble playing and the variety of the orchestra’s repertoire: from early Baroque to the present. The ensemble takes this sound from Freiburg to its European neighbours, to North and South America, to Asia and even to Australia and New Zealand. Since May 2012, the “Freiburgers”, together with their colleagues of the ensemble recherche, have an internationally unique home: the Ensemble House, a musical workshop and incubator for new ideas in historical and contemporary music.

The FBO collaborates with important artists such as René Jacobs, Andreas Staier, Isabelle Faust, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Christian Gerhaher, and Pablo Heras-Casado. It has a close alliance with the label harmonia mundi France, a successful musical partnership reflected in numerous CD productions and the receipt of prominent awards, such as the recent Germany’s ECHO Classical Music Award 2014 and Edison Classical Music Award 2013, the ECHO Classical Music Awards 2012 & 2013, Gramophone Award 2012, Edison Classical Music Award 2012, Gramophone Award 2011, Germany’s ECHO Classical Music Award 2011 and the German Record Critics’ Annual Award 2009.

Under the artistic directorship of its two concert-masters Gottfried von der Goltz and Petra Müllejans, and under the baton of selected conductors, the FBO presents itself with about one hundred performances per year in a variety of formations from chamber to opera orchestra: a self-administrated ensemble with its own subscription concerts at Freiburg’s Concert Hall, Stuttgart’s Liederhalle, and Berlin’s Philharmonie and with tours all over the world.